The anxiety of a woman who desires to avoid pregnancy will often lead her to such dangerous extremes that she is ready to risk health, and even life itself, rather than become a mother. Hence she earnestly seeks the means to destroy her unborn child. When this is done so early that the foetus cannot live, it is called an abortion. After the sixth or seventh month, it is a miscarriage. Abortions are always dangerous, though some females get over them without much suffering or harm. The most propitious periods for an abortion are at three, five, and six months. Both abortions and miscarriages are brought about by irregularities of conduct, such as too eager gratification of sexual desires, remaining too long in a warm bath, lacing the corsets too tight, violent exercise, such as dancing, riding a hard trotting horse, romping, jumping long distances, &c. Any of these imprudences will be apt to kill the foetus, which will soon thereafter be expelled from the womb. Women know the moment the foetus dies, for it falls to the bottom of the abdomen and lies there a dead weight, feeling like a foreign substance in the body.

Sudden and unexpected violence, such as falling down stairs, or being knocked down unexpectedly, will produce abortion or miscarriage, but as these mishaps would be a severe shock to the nervous system, they endanger the life of the mother. Any unnatural efforts to produce abortion, such as forcing the mouth of the womb, or taking powerful medicines, are also dangerous, as these may cause flooding that cannot be stopped. Bleeding too freely will bring on an abortion in some women, and on others will have no effect.

Ergot of Rye is sometimes given by physicians to produce abortion in the early stages of gestation. It is the diseased seeds of the common rye, called grown rye. It acts specifically on the uterus, or womb, increasing its contractile energy. Ergot is not only a powerful promoter of abortions and miscarriages, but it is given to women as a stimulant to uterine action during labor, and also to check hemorrhage. The dose, in powder, is fifteen to twenty grains repeated every twenty minutes until the desired effect is produced, or until one dram is taken. Or, a dram of ergot may be infused in four fluid ounces of boiling water, and one-third taken as a dose, and the other two doses (if necessary) at intervals of twenty minutes. On some women it will produce not only abortion at three or five months, but even a miscarriage, particularly when the foetus is male. There is no doubt that many women can escape child-bearing by the use of ergot, but it would be better for any one to get it from her family physician, who would know something of her constitution, than to pay a hundred times its worth to a quack, and perhaps endanger life or health by taking more than is prudent, and at an improper time. Oil of Tansey is another article used to bring on the monthly turn, and in some cases it will stop the course of gestation if taken at the time the turn is due. Two or three drops only are necessary for a dose. In some women, a considerable dose will cause a miscarriage at three months.

Abortions are sometimes produced under the direction of physicians by inserting a small hand up into the Vagina, and feeling for the mouth of the Womb with the finger. A little extract of Belladonna is used to promote the relaxation of its mouth, and by the most gentle means possible the finger may force a passage, when flooding at once ensues, and the foetus will generally be expelled soon after. Women who submit to this operation run some risk of losing their lives, and hence a physician will seldom endanger his reputation by advising it, except in extreme perilous cases.

Abortions and Miscarriages being in collision with Nature’s laws, should never be resorted to except in extreme cases, and then only under medical advice.